Emily walked into the ice cream shop, feeling the relief of the cool air in the place on her face. It was a particularly hot day outside.
As often happened on hot days, the ice cream shop was packed. The vendors were busy as ever, running around behind the counter, filling the orders of impatient children and chatty teenagers. Emily eyes scanned the counter until she found exactly who she was looking for. Black shirt and blue jeans, just like the first day she'd seen him.
She moved to stand next to the counter, off to the side of all the ice cream shop patrons, and waited to catch Jesse's eye.
Surprisingly, it didn't take that long. He smiled at her, and, after handing off a cone of brightly colored sugary goodness to a small child at the counter, headed over to her.
"Hey," he said. "I've got like… five minutes left. Once again, impeccable timing. Wanna grab a table and we can split something once I'm done?"
"Sounds good," said Emily, returning his grin, and then heading for one of the only tables left—a small table for two in the corner of the shop.
As she waited at the table, she thought about everything that had happened. She remembered the icy, chest-constricting realization she'd had that morning about never seeing Jesse again. She'd calmed down quite a bit since then, and decided she needed to talk to Jesse. They could find a way to see each other. They definitely weren't going to lose touch, that much was for sure. But what about his family? What about becoming mortal?
She and Jesse hadn't had time to talk about it. She didn't know how much of a right to meddle she had in the matter, anyway. But she knew that, deep down, she'd been thinking that Jesse would become mortal, and stay with her. That would be so wonderful.
But she didn't have any say in the matter. She'd only just met Jesse, really, especially in terms of his life. She was probably only a moment in the scheme of his life. Why should she matter so much? If only there were some easy answer to all of it…
"Here we go," said Jesse, making her jump. "Chocolate ice cream, chocolate cone, chocolate sprinkles."
Jesse had brought over a dish with two up-turned chocolate ice cream cones in them. Chocolate sprinkles lined the edges.
"Wow," said Emily, smiling. "It looks amazing."
Jesse chuckled, and then handed her a spoon. "Eat up."
Emily had a couple of bites. She didn't know exactly what she was waiting for. Probably for Jesse to say something. Probably for him to bring it up. But by the third bite, it became painfully obvious that Jesse was unlikely to say anything, probably for the same reason she was keeping quite.
"So Jesse," she said, starting in what she hoped was a casual tone. "I was thinking this morning…"
"Yeah?" said Jesse, putting his spoon in his mouth and then resting his head on his hands and giving her his complete attention while he sucked on it.
Emily couldn't help but smile. He was so cute.
"Dammit Jesse," she said, shaking her head. "That is just not playing fair. Well, so I was thinking… and I remembered, I was only really… here on vacation."
She paused, regarded Jesse, and noted a hint of pain in his eyes. She rushed on.
"Well, yeah," she said. "So, we need a way to keep in touch. At least, if you want to, which I hope you do. I really do, so I was thinking about it, and—"
She couldn't continue, however, because Jesse had shut up her mini rant by leaning forward and gently kissing her on the mouth.
"And… yeah," she said, softly, when he drew away. She looked down at the checkered tablecloth.
"Hey," said Jesse, smiling sadly up at her. "Does it look like I don't want to keep in touch?"
Emily smiled up at him. He grinned back.
"Okay, here's what," said Jesse. "We need to talk. Really talk. And we sure as hell can't do that here. Do you wanna go to the fireworks show with me tonight?"
"Fireworks?" asked Emily.
"Yeah, fireworks," said Jesse, laughing. "I hear it's the tradition around here for the Fourth of July?"
"Oh yeah," said Emily, blushing. She vaguely remembered her mom and aunt mentioning it before she'd run out the door to get to the ice cream shop. She frowned. "I think my family's taking me…"
"Oh," said Jesse, disappointment blatant on his face.
"No problem," said Emily, nudging his foot playfully. "I'll just show up with them, be all, 'Oh my god, Jesse! Fancy meeting you here!' and then give them that puppy dog look. And then we can just run off."
Jesse's grin was back.
"Great," he said. "I'll see you there. But I think I'd better actually let your family spend some time with you this summer. See ya at the show."
"See ya," said Emily, as they both got up.
Jesse squeezed her hand, and kissed her softly on the cheek. Then he went back into the back of the shop to get his stuff.
Sighing a little, Emily left the shop. So then tonight, hopefully, they would work everything out.
As soon as Emily arrived at the fairgrounds with her family, she immediately concluded that it would take quite a while to find Jesse. Who knew there were this many people in such a small town? The place was packed, each family with their own car (or cars), chairs, little plotted out areas… it was Fourth of July madness.
Of course, I should have known that, Emily thought as she helped her family set out their chairs and blankets. She'd been here many times before, every time they'd come to visit for the summer.
"See him anywhere?" asked Kaylie in a whisper, coming over to help her with the chairs. Of course Emily had confided in Kaylie. And Kaylie was eating it up. It was clear that Kaylie didn't have nearly enough excitement in her life when she got so excited about her cousin sneaking off with a boy. Then again, maybe she was just been a good, interested friend.
"No," said Emily, with a sigh.
"Well, he's around here somewhere," said Kaylie, grinning. "He has to be. And you think you two would have developed some weird psychic bond by now, with all the time you've spent together…"
"Ha ha," said Emily. "Funny. No, really."
Kaylie smirked. Thenher face changed, and she stepped softly on Emily's foot.
"Ouch!" said Emily, "what—"
"Look over next to the old guy, and those college guys in the truck," said Kaylie, nodding.
Emily's eyes scanned the area Kaylie had pointed out as she set out the last chair. Finally, her eyes alighted on a reddish-brown haired head, belonging to a boy in a black t-shirt and jeans.
"You're amazing," said Emily, grinning.
"Oh, don't worry, I know," said Kaylie, falling into one of the chairs dramatically.
Jesse had spotted them and was now jogging over.
"Hey Mom!" Emily called, already walking toward him. "I look who turned up!"
The rest of her family all turned to look, just as Jesse came up to her, grinning.
"Hey," he said. "Hey, everybody."
The family all said hi, and then came the task of persuading the family.
Actually, it wasn't all that hard.
"Mom, can I hang out with Jesse for the show?"
"Sure," said her mom with a sigh, after a moment's contemplation. "What's the point in even arguing anymore? Just be back after the show, okay? We're going to rent a movie."
"Okay," said Emily with a smile, surprised. She grabbed Jesse's hand, and turned to go, but not before catching the wink that Kaylie threw her way.
Jesse had a blanket spread out on the ground where he'd been standing and watching for her before. He also had a small cooler with a few drinks and snacks in it.
"So," he said, throwing her a soda, "did your cousin know I was coming?"
Emily laughed. "Yeah," she said. "I had to tell Kaylie. She thinks it's great."
"Yeah," said Jesse, "I saw that wink."
Emily blushed, and then opened her drink.
"So," said Jesse, his voice becoming slightly more guarded all of the sudden, "uh… what was it you wanted to talk about? Because I kind of have something to tell you…"
"Oh?" asked Emily, curious. "Well, you go first."
Jesse didn't say anything. He played with the cap of his soda bottle. Emily was about to say something else, when finally, he spoke up.
"I knew your grandmother, Winnie," he said, not looking at her. He was resting his arms on his knees, and looking at the ground.
"I knew that, Jesse," said Emily, slowly. What was up?
"I mean…" said Jesse, running his hand through his hair. "God, this is so awkward…"
"It's okay," said Emily. "It can't be that awkward."
"Have you ever been in love with your girlfriend's grandmother?" asked Jesse, looking at her for the first time.
Emily didn't say anything for a moment.
"Okay," she said, after the short silence, "maybe it is that awkward. Jesse… if you loved Winnie, why didn't you tell me?"
"Ha," said Jesse. "Can you imagine where in conversation that would come up? Besides, it was just too weird… and Emily, I don't love her anymore. And I really don't think I ever did. Not like…"
"What?" asked Emily, slowly.
"Not like I like you," he said, blushing and looking back down on the blanket.
Emily didn't say anything at first, but she scooted closer to him on the blanket.
"Jesse Tuck," she said, leaning against his warm body, "I do believe you just found a very round-about way to tell me you're in love with me."
Jesse looked at her, and his usual grin was creeping back onto his face.
"I guess I did, didn't I?" he said. Then, he shifted a little on the blanket. "You cold?" he asked.
Emily realized that she was indeed, fairly chilly.
They moved, and Jesse pulled the blanket up, so that they were huddled next to each other, and the blanket was wrapped around them.
"So what did you want to talk about?" asked Jesse, now much more at ease. His breath blew over Emily's hair, tickling.
"Oh," said Emily, resting her head on his shoulder. "I guess… remember what I started saying at the ice cream parlor?"
"Mhm," said Jesse.
"Well, just that, really," she said. "I don't want to lose you just because we were only here on vacation."
"Me neither," Jesse said softly, his head coming down to rest on top of hers.
"So what are we gonna do?" asked Emily, her voice taking a slightly pouty tone. "It's so not fair."
"I know," said Jesse. "Don't worry; we'll make it work. E-mail is a lovely thing… oh, and I've heard there's this new thing on the internet now, called Myspace…"
Emily laughed, and smacked him. "Please. Conform to Myspace?"
Jesse laughed. "Okay, we can do Facebook then. Who cares? As long as we keep in touch, we can see each other. Besides… with the whole mortal thing…"
His voice got even lower here. Emily shivered.
"… we might just stick around town here," he finished.
"Then are you guys all gonna be mortal again?" asked Emily, feeling hope rising inside her, and trying to push it down.
Jesse was silent for a moment.
"Tuck's already gone up to the spring," he said. "He's been waiting for this chance for years. Centuries."
Emily laughed good-naturedly at the joke. She wished her hopes wouldn't get up that easily. And they were getting higher and higher inside of her.
"How about everybody else?" she prodded gently. How about you?
"Mae went up with Tuck," said Jesse. "She'll stick with Tuck no matter what, you know? And, you know about Miles already…"
He trailed off. Emily wanted to scream with frustration.
"Jesse," she said, her hand finding his inside of the blankets. It was clenched into a fist.
"Hey," she said, as his hand unclenched and intertwined with hers. "What are you gonna do, Jesse?"
Jesse was silent, once again. Quite the trend tonight.
"I was thinking, Emily," he said softly. He was looking off, nowhere in particular. "Everyone else was so ready…"
"What's wrong Jesse?" asked Emily gently, rubbing his hand with her thumb.
Jesse felt tense again.
"I was thinking… and… it's scary," he said, in the quietest voice Emily had ever heard. "I mean, I'm just really freaked."
"Why?"
"I've lived for a long time," he continued. "I mean, you know that. And being mortal all of the sudden… it just seems really frightening. Time doesn't exist in my world, Emily. It never has. Or at least, when it did, I was too young to remember it. I really enjoy life, Emily. I love it. I… I've never had to worry, because I could spend as long as I wanted on anything. And now, it's just… I don't know…"
He took a moment to rearrange his words, and then started again, slowly.
"I want to be with you," he said. "I know that. I'm just afraid… I'm afraid that after being immortal for so long, the time I'll spend with you… will go by so fast that… that it'll seem like it never happened at all."
Neither of them said a word. They just sat, huddled together under their blanket. But Jesse wasn't quite finished, apparently.
"So yeah," said Jesse, a bit lamely. "I was just thinking about it, a lot. I went to Winnie's grave. I… I do that sometimes when I'm thinking about hard stuff. And I realized something. It was funny, it was like Winnie told me, or something."
Jesse looked down at Emily and laughed a little bit. He had a goofy look on his face.
"Anyway," he said, finally, "I realized that in the end, it wasn't really that hard of a choice."
Emily's chest felt like it would burst open.
"Even if I am afraid of it…"
She felt like she was going to scream…
"I'm going to stay with you."
Why didn't he just tell her—
Wait. What?
Jesse was grinning uncertainly at her. She couldn't believe her ears. Then Jesse nodded, just once.
Emily threw her arms around him, feeling like she wanted to cry. When he went to wrap his arms around her, they both fell backwards onto the grass, still wrapped in the blanket. Emily landed on top, and Jesse's lips came up to meet hers. They were smiling.
And at that moment, behind Emily's head, fireworks started to explode.
A/N: oooh!! I UPDATED!!! . what WILL happen next??
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who knows?? Hehe… or maybe I'll be annoying, and end it here, like a movie about figure skating…
ANYWAY. I KNOW I haven't updated in forever, but thanks to all you pushy reviews, my writing block melted. A little. Hehe. Thanks!!